‘Infinite’ Review – An Atmospheric Title That Is Addictingly Fun

Nexus Game Studios, the minds behind Gravonaut, have just recently released their latest game on iOS titled Infinite. We’ve covered every step of Infinite’s development over the past year and were very excited to finally go hands on. How does it stack up? Despite being fairly difficult, I can’t get enough of it.

Infinite is based in the cosmos where you will journey across a galaxy and form solar systems all while surviving black holes. Infinite features arcade-style gameplay with simplistic yet beautiful abstract visuals and a soundtrack that really brings together all aspects of the game.

The game is broken up into four different game modes as well as a tutorial. Prime, Survival, and the more difficult Prime+ and Survival+.

In Prime you control a “orbiter” which orbits either a larger or smaller planet that attracts all sorts of various objects in the cosmos. Tapping on the screen increases the distance from the planet, and thus increasing the time it takes to orbit it. Letting go will retract your orbiter and bring it back to the planet making it whip around faster. This simple yet challenging game mechanic is the core of Infinite.

Prime will have you grabbing different sizes of spatial matter in which you need 5 pieces to fully form a planet and start creating a new one. There is a bar at the top of the screen that lets you know just how many more planets/matter you need to complete the stage and move on.

Sound easy enough? Think again. There will be various forms of “anti-matter” trying to take one of your lives away before you can continue on to the next level. These range from random floating pieces that are pulled by gravity just like regular matter, or can be more sophisticated. Some pieces of anti-matter explode in different directions while one actually shot out tinier pieces of anti-matter like a space ship.

You’re not alone in avoiding the anti-matter however. Helping you out will be power-ups that give you a shield, extra lives, slow down time, and other perks. I often found myself getting in harm’s way just to grab these power-ups as they truly are beneficial.

The other core mode in Infinite is Survival. You get a taste of this in one of the latter stages of Prime where you are briefly faced with a black hole. This black hole is permanent in Survival where you’ll see just how long you can last up against it. Instead of orbiting your regular planet you are now orbiting a black hole. Thus, instead of tapping on the screen to extend when you want, the black hole requires you to almost always be tapping on the screen. If you let your orbiter detract too far it will fall into the black hole and result in a loss of life.

Survival also brings a unique element as it instead only pulls in anti-matter. The anti-matter flies in at an alarming rate and will require very fast reflexes on the player’s part. The longest I’ve lasted so far is 1:34.

The tone of Infinite is set perfectly with its beautiful presentation. Infinite has a abstract art style that is simplistic enough to keep you focused on the gameplay, yet still managing to be visually appealing with its various bright colors. The music in Infinite varies between a translucent calming style, and a fast paced head bobbing beat depending on the gameplay. Both styles fit right in to the sci-fi vibe that the game exudes. They both work perfectly and really get you in the mood for how the gameplay is evolving.

Outside of the immediate presentation, Infinite also comes with 21 achievements and global and local leaderboards for all modes. Currently the title has suffered from some launch issues that resulted in me not being able to play the game after I visited non-gameplay menus like the options and leaderboards. Currently Nexus Game Studio states that they have worked out the kinks and have submitted the update to the App Store. If you can get past the current launch issues that the title has suffered from, Infinite is a must grab at $1.99. Not only is Infinite atmospheric, entertaining, and challenging, it’s addictingly fun.